At a cotillion ball the ladies and gentlemen bow and curtsey. Manners and civility reign as king, but below the surface lurks a distinct carnal undertone. As Paul Taylor’s Cloven Kingdom progresses, the gentile dancers turn humorously grotesque. Acting on animal impulses, they prance and stalk on all fours. The music, by Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell and Mallory Miller is an audible struggle between a dignified baroque and an urgent percussive 20th-century piece. Cloven Kingdom ends with grace but suggests we may not be as far removed from our ancestors as we appear.

In Piazzolla Caldera, Paul Taylor’s company embodies the soul of the tango. Without utilizing a single tango step they capture the culture, passion, identity and conquest intrinsic in this intense dance. In a dimly lit dive bar, set to music by Astor Piazzolla and Jerzy Peterburshsky, Taylor first exposes, then reshapes, the unspoken attitudes and identities of the tango. Clement Crisp of the Financial Times of London calls Piazzolla Caldera “one of Taylor’s most astonishing (even for him) creations.”

Meet-the-Artists Reception

Meet the Paul Taylor Dance Company at a reception following Friday evening’s performance at the Aronoff. FREE

Lecture/Demonstrations & Outreach

Contemporary Dance Theater will be bringing Paul Taylor Dance Company into our communities through outreach activities. Activities are being scheduled now. Stop back for details closer to the residency dates. Please email residencies@cdt-dance.org to be notified of future opportunities with artists.

The Contemporary Dance Theater Guest Artist Series is sponsored by THE OTTO M. BUDIG FAMILY FOUNDATION and is supported by the thousands of people who give generously to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. Support also comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Contemporary Dance Theater is also supported by The Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that supports public programs in the arts.